Genetic divergence in Greek populations of the genus Leuciscus and its evolutionary and biogeographical implications

In 23 populations of Greek Leuciscus (Squalius), the percentage of polymorphic allozyme loci ranged between 0.034 and 0.379 (P=0.19) and expected heterozygosity was 0.011-0.166 (H(e)=0.067). Current taxonomy is confusing and does not correspond to genetic data that support the presence in Greece of at least seven different species: L. cephalus, L. peloponnensis, L. prespensis, L. moreoticus, L. borysthenicus, L. keadicus and Leuciscus sp. from Euboea Island. The maximum Nei modified genetic distance was found among L. keadicus and the rest of subgenus Squalius populations (D*(Nei)=0.446-0.705). Accepting the molecular clock hypothesis, speciation for the genus Leuciscus in Greece must have occurred during the Cenozoic period (between the Middle Miocene and the Later Pliocene). The two main biogeographical events causing speciation on mainland Greece were the Uplift of the Pindic cordillera and the isolation of the southern part of Peloponnesus. The faunistic composition of the lakes studied, in which new taxa are reconsidered, suggests the same faunistic origin in the Early Pliocene for Lakes Prespa and Stymphalia and a younger one in the Late Pliocene for Lake Trichonis. Euboea Island was not a zoogeographical unit during the Cenozoic. The isolation of all the freshwater fish fauna of Euboea has occurred since the Pliocene. The biogeographical model proposed here differs from classical hypotheses in considering of lesser importance the dispersion of L. cephalus on the Greek mainland during the Neogene and Quaternary.